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Elon Musk is reportedly considering taking his fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the Supreme Court. Attorney Alex Spiro, who is a lawyer for Musk, confirmed on Tuesday that the Tesla CEO plans to ask the highest court in the country to determine whether the SEC exploited a consent decree that restricts him from talking about Tesla’s financials on Twitter, which is now called X. An appeals court previously dismissed Musk’s allegations of abuse against the SEC.
The consent decree arose from an August 2018 tweet from Musk where he said that he was “considering taking Tesla private.” The multi-billionaire added that he had secured the funding necessary for the privatization of the EV (electric vehicle) company. While Tesla has remained public all this while, his tweet affected the company’s share prices, causing financial losses to some investors. The SEC stepped in, alleging Musk of defrauding Tesla investors with false privatization claims.
A trial followed, eventually leading to a truce between Musk and Tesla. The two parties agreed to pay fines of $20 million each to cover the losses of Tesla investors. The agreement also required Musk to step down as the company’s board chairman and seek approval from a Tesla lawyer when tweeting about its financials. However, things didn’t end there. The SEC suspected that Musk may not have always complied with the last part of the agreement. Tesla and its CEO were repeatedly contacted by the agency’s lawyers over the matter.
Elon Musk wants the Supreme Court to settle his SEC case
Musk responded by alleging the SEC of harassing him with “endless, unfounded investigations.” He said that the agency abused the consent decree, which he had already labeled as a “muzzle” on his free speech. In mid-May 2023, an appeals court (the 2nd US Circuit of Appeals in Manhattan) dismissed his allegations. It subsequently refused to revisit the case or screening of Musk’s tweets because he had “changed his mind.” The Tesla CEO is now taking the case to the Supreme Court.
According to Reuters, which first reported Musk’s plans to turn to the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court reviews about 5,000 cases every year but hears oral arguments in only about 70 of them. Time will tell whether it takes up the “SEC v Musk” case. More importantly, where the Supreme Court overturns the consent decree that Musk isn’t happy with. If it does, the Tesla CEO would be able to talk more freely about his EV company on the rebranded social media platform X.
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